From owner-freebsd-newbies Thu Jul 25 5:43: 3 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDF0137B400 for ; Thu, 25 Jul 2002 05:43:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from web21104.mail.yahoo.com (web21104.mail.yahoo.com [216.136.227.106]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8DC2943E4A for ; Thu, 25 Jul 2002 05:43:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hitmaster2k@yahoo.com) Message-ID: <20020725124300.36440.qmail@web21104.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [62.254.0.5] by web21104.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 25 Jul 2002 05:43:00 PDT Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 05:43:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Hiten Pandya Reply-To: hiten@uk.FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: block device vs char device To: Marco Berizzi , freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Hello Marco. --- Marco Berizzi wrote: > [...] > This is the output (partial) from ls -l /dev of my > FreeBSD 4.6 i386 box. > > [ ... ls output snipped ] > > Why /dev/MAKEDEV create these nodes as char device? Should't > these device be created as block device (disk & cdrom)? OK. First of all, block device support used to exist in FreeBSD, till FreeBSD 4.2(or 3), and after that, the whole block device subsystem was replaced with a character device subsystem; this had its advantages. Apart from performance, I am not sure what other advantages it offered; but since 4.3, all device nodes use the Character Device Driver Interface, i.e. is why it results in character nodes. For the user, this should not make any difference, as it still offers the same functionality as it did when they were as block devices, unless you go far into the internals. > Other question. Which the difference between /dev/cd0a & > /dev/cd0c? The FreeBSD Handbook / FAQ should contain an answer for this question. > Last: majors are listed in /usr/src/sys/conf/majors > and minors? I am not sure about this question. sorry. -- Hiten __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message